Instead of throwing your old candles away, you can melt them down to make new colorful candles. This is an easy and fun DIY project that won’t hardly cost you any money. All you really need is an empty jar, a popsicle stick, and a long candle wick. To begin recycling your candles, first tie a candle wick onto a popsicle stick and place it on top of an empty jar (see picture below). Then, boil some water and carefully add in your old glass candle and the wax will melt and become liquid. Once it is liquid, slowly pour it into the empty jar. Repeat as many times as needed to create a new colorful candle. No old candles to use? Then this candle making kit is a great way to learn to make your own soy wax candles. It includes everything you need to make 2 jar candles and 4 tea lights.
Here is what you need to make your own candles:
- old candles
- jar to put your candle in
- candle wick (buy a cheap candle and steal the wick)
- popsicle stick
- oven mitts
- pot of boiling water
1. On top of your empty jar, tie a candle wick to a wooden stick and center the wick in the jar.
2. Gather you old candles that have some wax left in them.
3. Boil water wear oven mitts and carefully add in your used candles to melt the wax for the new candle.
4. After each old candle is turned to liquid wax, carefully pour it into the empty jar making sure the wick is centered.
5. Pour each liquified candle wax into the jar as this will make nice colorful layers.
6. Let each wax layer dry and harden so the different colors do not mix.
7. Continue filling with wax until it is near the top.
8. Remove the wooden stick and cut the wick to the proper size.
YOU NOW HAVE A CRAFTY DIY COLORFUL RECYCLED CANDLE
Written by Keith Schneerer
Certified Appliance Tech · Founder, RemoveAndReplace.com
Keith has spent 30+ years repairing machines, starting as a military mechanic and later maintaining food processing equipment before moving into appliance repair. He founded RemoveAndReplace.com to share field-tested repair advice.
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